It's time for city to come together

Oct. 2, 2013

The dust finally has started to settle after Hattiesburg’s messy mayoral elections, and it’s time for elected officials to get back to business.

And work together.

Although the mayoral battle was between Mayor Johnny DuPree and independent challenger Dave Ware, things had gotten heated between council members — especially when DuPree attempted to reappoint some members of the previous election commission.

Councilwoman Deborah Denard Delgado said conflict is not uncommon for City Council, although that doesn’t mean council members’ relationships are broken or election bickering will get in the way of city business.

“We’ll move forward to make sure that we put the city of Hattiesburg first,” Delgado said.

Council President Kim Bradley echoed those sentiments.

“We’ve got to sit down as Christian men and know that there’s something bigger than all of us,” he said.

While a fight is likely over DuPree’s department head appointments, we hope that council members and the mayor will do as they say and work together to put the city’s best interests first.

It’s also time for Hattiesburg residents to come together. That’s the only way the city can move forward.

Are there election issues that still need to be examined? Of course.

City officials have their work cut out for them in making sure that elections officials receive proper training before the next election cycle.

Absentee ballots not being properly handled should be a thing of the past. So should ballot boxes without their required seals. These types of mistakes cannot happen again.

“We’ve seen some problems in our election process, and we do need to continue on that conversation. But we need to make sure that we continue on that conversation without contempt,” Ware said Saturday evening.

We couldn’t agree more.

We don’t need to sweep these problems under the rug. We need to address them civilly, just as Hattiesburg’s elected officials should conduct their business.